Celebrating Heritage at the Celtic Festival

Many visitors favorite part of the Celtic Fest are the iconic bagpipes.

https://www.facebook.com/NELACelticFest/

Saturday, October 7th, the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the fourteenth annual Celtic Festival. The festival will be held at Kiroli Park from 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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Tom McCandlish and Cory Crow discuss this year's Celtic Fest.

This year's Celtic Festival is gearing up to be a community favorite. It will begin, as always, with a tradition Irish blessing and will include many staples of the Celtic Festival. There will be bagpipes, tradition Irish music and dancers along with more modern music with Irish and Scottish influences, and activities for children. Along with the music and activities there will be booths with Celtic fare, traditional Irish food prepared by Chef Pat Nolan, food trucks with festival style food, and St. Baldrick's 'Brave the Shave' challenge, a childhood cancer charity funding research for children diagnosed with cancer.

Tom McCandlish, one of the founders of the NELA Celtic Fest shares that it is a great way to celebrate local culture. MacCandlish says, "A large part of this area was settled by Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants." Communities members may have more connection to Celtic heritage than they know.

More information on this years Celtic Festival can be found here. The festival is free, but admission to the park is one dollar.